Denny Hamlin’s rollercoaster playoff run continued at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he secured a top-10 finish but couldn’t shake the challenges that have plagued his Joe Gibbs Racing team in recent weeks. The No. 11 driver finished eighth in the South Point 400, but the day was far from smooth sailing, with issues on pit road and lost track position defining much of his race.
“It wasn’t a clean day,” Hamlin admitted after the race. “That certainly sums it up. We did the best we could to get the best finish. I thought Chris [Gabehart, crew chief] did a great job to get some sort of finish.”
Hamlin’s race unraveled early, losing ground during the first round of green-flag pit stops due to a slow stop that saw him drop out of the top 10. Gabehart responded by keeping Hamlin on track at the start of the second stage, which temporarily put the No. 11 car in the race lead. However, the strategy was more about regaining lost track position than going for the win, and Hamlin quickly fell through the field on older tires, eventually finishing the stage in 19th place.
“We were off some, but we lost so much track position obviously on pit road,” Hamlin explained. “We weren’t that great. Certainly not as good as I thought we would be after practice [on Saturday]. The team did a really good job just getting the best finish we could.”
This marks a recurring theme for Hamlin in the postseason—struggles on pit road have repeatedly hampered his ability to fight for top finishes. The same issue arose earlier in the playoffs at Kansas Speedway, where a slow day in the pits forced him to claw back to an eighth-place finish.
“It’s not ideal,” Hamlin said of the pit road struggles. “But everyone is trying as hard as they can.”
Despite the top-10 finish at Las Vegas, Hamlin’s playoff hopes took a hit. He entered the race eight points below the cutline for the Championship 4 and left 27 points adrift, with only two races left to close the gap.
“We’re not running quite as strong as we were earlier in the year, and we’re definitely not as clean, execution-wise, as we were,” Hamlin admitted. “We’ll just have to clean it up and go to Homestead and try to win it.”
With his back against the wall, Hamlin will need to deliver a near-perfect performance at Homestead-Miami Speedway if he wants to keep his championship hopes alive.
